We've Been Living our Happily Ever After for

Friday, December 23, 2011

I noticed that my entry about wedding venues is getting more hits than most of my other posts so I decided to make this follow-up to the first one. No, this is not about the glass garden, grand terrace, gazebo royale, oasis and fernwood. You know all those venues very well and what follows are alternatives if you cannot afford or do not want these well known places.

If you will notice with my other posts, budget has always been our primary consideration in our wedding decisions. Hence, the venues that i put here were considered based on the budget and everything else just followed.

1.Patio Ibarra
Patio Ibarra is part of the ibarrapartyvenues and it is located in quezon avenue in the same building as tong yang. hubby to be and I have seen it personally. Technically, it is just a rectangular ballroom space but with the numerous chandeliers, wall to wall carpet and good enough curtains, it has a lot of potential.
pros and cons: ibarra has their own set of menus so getting an outside caterer is not a practical option. They also have inclusions such as the bridal car, cake and photobooth- all of which can work to your advantage or disadvantage if you have other suppliers in mind.

2. The Village Patio
The Village Patio is located in Sikatuna. I made a separate blog about it and initially, hubby to be and I were really set on getting this venue because 1) it is in QC which is an ideal location 2) I worked in this area for a few years so it is dear to my heart and 3) a few people have very positive reviews about the place and the food
the deal: The village patio also has an in-house caterer, tarlaquena food specialist and though they allow outside caterers, the fee is quite high compared to the package if you get everything from them. The menu is quite unique especially if you are tired of the typical fish fillet beef stew and everything else combo. The venue is covered and has plenty of plants- which is a nice 2nd option for a garden wedding but i guess it can get humid since it's not airconditioned.

3. KOWLOON WEST/SHANGRI-LA'S FINEST CUISINE WEST AVENUE
These venues are side by side each other and both offer very affordable packages.
the deal: we could have opted for shangri-la but hubby to be's cousin got married here and he didnt want our wedding to be at the exact same place. Another disadvantage that we experienced was that 2 or more events can happen simultaneously at the same time so if more guests turn up, they would have to sit at the ground floor even though the event area is on the second. I havent attended an event in Kowloon so I just included it in case you're interested in Shangri-La, might as well inquire in both venues.

i tried googling images that might be helpful to you but none were "helpful" so just visit the places yourself.

4.GREAT EASTERN HOTEL(ABERDEEN COURT)
This is also located in Quezon Avenue and in fact, Patio Ibarra, Shangri-La, Kowloon and Aberdeen are within a kilometer radius with each other. Aberdeen is probably the most affordable, which ironically, is the reason why we didnt get them since we were skeptical that for that price, they would be able to pull off and wow our guests. For a smaller party, however, I guess Aberdeen would be a good choice especially for budget savvy couples.

again, i couldnt find helpful pictures so just try visiting the place yourself.

5. Pacific Waves-San Jose Del Monte Bulacan
Pacific waves is already in Bulacan but it is still a great option for those who are from the fairview/novaliches/northern caloocan area. I have always thought of it as a "cousin" of fernwood due to the fact that it has a chapel within its premises and though I have not been there personally, the pictures are very promising.
the deal: everything is in their property- they have lodging, the church and the venue as well. However, this venue was a little over our budget and would attract so-so visitors on my side since I am from Norzagaray.

credits to visitpinas for this picture...this btw is their own chapel.

6. SECRET GARDEN
The best advertisement that this place can use is that it was the venue for Kim Chiu's debut celebration. They also have a very unique concept and with packages for 100-300 guests, it can attract intimate and big wedding celebrations.
the deal: secret garden is a very beautiful place especially if you're aiming for a themed wedding. We didnt book them though because of the location- it lives up to its name and it is quite hard to go there.

7. Amaranth Garden
This is accessible via Mindanao avenue and the last time I checked, their rate was 20k for the venue.My sister and I tried looking for the place twice- with google maps printouts, asking people from trike drivers to guard to gasoline boys to walking pedestrians and yet FAIL-we couldn't find it; and so I thought- I don't want our guests going through the same thing. Of course, we might have missed crucial details or we're simply not familiar with the place so try to check it out yourself...

8. casa español

This is another beautiful venue in the Novaliches/Mindanao Avenue area but same with Secret Garden and Amaranth, we didnt put it on top of our list bec. of the fear of our guests getting lost. They have packages and according to their site http://casaespanol.multiply.com/, they now have a facebook page and their home page says

"The garden venue can accommodate 50 to 180 guests.

We are located just 5 minutes away from TRINOMA and SM North Edsa.

For complete price listing, MENU list and amenities, email us at casaespanol@yahoo.com
Look for us at FACEBOOK at "Casa Espanol Garden Weddings"

Sunday, December 18, 2011

I used to say that I wanted green flowers but I realized that the colors would be..well, for lack of a better word, BORING. Then I realized..why not use pink flowers? It would be a nice contrast with the brown and blue and there are more choices..CASE IN POINT: The bouquet below made entirely of pink flowers..

Needless to say, flowers undeniably make a wedding much much prettier and somehow make you feel dreamy and romantic like you can fall into a romantic sleep for the rest of your life. However, in the absence of preservation efforts, most flowers would wilt after a week so hubby to be and I vowed not to spend too much on flowers. Some measures that we have talked about are:

1. To stick/make do with the flower arrangement inclusions in the church. The walk down the aisle would undeniably be prettier with many blooms but given the financial constraints, it was definitely just a nice to have.

2. Provide "flower" alternatives to our flower girls. They are flower girls, i get that. I know, I know, I know. But girls will be girls! I can just see them scratching their heads because the wreaths are itchy and/or heavy or tearing the flowers in the baskets out of boredom...
ANOTHER CASE IN POINT:sir wynn's(our pre-nup photog) shot from another wedding he attended.

We found a supplier that makes rose pastillas and these cute alternatives would surely give our little girls something to pass time and have a gastronomic galore..instead of tearing blooms apart.

3. Go for corsages and buttonieres. We know that the ninangs and abays would be very happy with bouquets but corsages would serve the purpose without hurting our pockets. Based on the number of flowers, I guess a bouquet would cost 150 and up each whereas a corsage would cost less than a 100 bucks! for 5 ninangs and around 10 more female entourage members, that would be a favorable savings for us.

I've had a liking towards calla lilies and roses for the boutonnieres

and....

gerbera corsages!

omg, just finished two posts in one sitting.. Wedding Blogging Fever is on! ^_^ Till Next Time!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I am blatantly admitting that they are not our first choice. We really really wanted to get rockin' duo as I was already eyeing their work as early as two years prior to the wedding. However(and here comes the big sigh), I texted them last June (10 months to go) and they were no longer available on our date.

our first love....

Many photographers/videographers are talented but their prices are skyrocket that some are at the point of being absurd so rockin duo's affordable rate + their skill is what sets them apart. Long story short, since the rockin duo team was not available, we contacted several photographers and videographers before we ended up with this combo. Why? Because of several criteria that made us feel like they can pull off on making our wedding date immortal.1)-It makes me feel "important" when a prospect supplier replies immediately. I know that they are very busy and I appreciate it tremendously when they reply promptly to queries. These two reply as soon as they can.2)-The price. Most suppliers would cost more when you get their services stand alone. However, for these two, the prices combined together are still very reasonable. Our contract price with sir junnel was 3****, which is a very reasonable price considering that it includes the onsite video and it's already HD!As for sir bhok, his rate is 4 figures for services only to cover the entire shoot, which is a steal considering that we'll have two photographersCombining both, we'd pay less than 50,000 including an onsite video. I had to emphasize that since it was the deal breaker for other good p/v suppliers we found. They usually had basic packages at around 30-50k and we needed to add 10-20k for the onsite video.3) They were so accommodating and there werent hidden charges!-On our initial meeting with sir junnel, he even gave us the option NOT to give a downpayment first though he and his family came all the way from cavite since he wanted us to be sure of getting his services..-sir bhok sent me the contract already and I didnt feel pressured at all about getting his services yet he was already treating us as reserved clients. I had to highlight this since there were some suppliers that we contacted that were either a little persistent or made us feel as if it didnt matter if we got him/them or not.4) they had sample work and their prices are published outright on their websites. I'm sorry but I just dont get suppliers that you had to email about their prices. Some p/v are really really good but I think couples should know outright how much they charge since it's a waste of time asking if it's beyond your budget. Second, artists' work should speak for itself and sorry to say for those without sample work, but all the blah is useless if I am unable to see for myself that you are good.This is an outright advertisement of our suppliers.harhar...we cant wait to see them soon to make our memorable day imprints..

my fave shot from sir bhok's weddings up to date

my fave work of sir junnel because of the song :)giddy all over again.till next time!

Saturday, December 10, 2011

forgive me for the very very long title..just trying to drive more traffic in my blog.hehe.anyway, the title is exactly what happened today but the daldalita that I am, of course, I'll tell you all the side kwento first :)

The wedding culture in the Philippines has changed altogether in the past four or five years with the introduction and adaptation of concepts such as save the date cards, magnetic albums, prenup pictorials, onsite videos wedding coordinators, food tastings and so on. In the food industry, some of the caterers that have created names are Hizons, Eloquente, Vs and F, Juan Carlo and many others. for the venue, some that I'm familiar with are The Glass Garden, Gazebo Royale, Oasis, the Ibarra venues, Splendido, Villa de Oro and the list goes on. For people who choose to get one of these caterers and match it with another well known venue, they simple have to contact their AEs, set up an appointment and boom, they became Koko Krunch! haha. Kidding aside, they just have to contact their key person and set a meeting and they'll have a mock setup.

For us, it was trickier since our caterer is just as good but they dont accept that many events compared to these caterers. Imagine our joy when they told us that they would host a wedding in our venue and I couldnt be happier! I thought I'd never get the chance to see a mock setup on our actual venue but God just makes sure to let the opportunities present themselves.

Hence today, off we went to Pasig together with my future in-laws. They havent tried the food the first time and since they will be paying for a big bulk of the caterer, we wanted them to at least try the food more than once. hehe

It was like heaven when I walked in. The couple who got married also had a motif of aqua blue. Theirs is paired with gold but since ours is aqua blue and choco brown, I wasnt thinking of the brown anyway since a sea of brown organza would be too dark. The couple also had 210 guests and ours is 250,so I had a general idea of how crowded it would be.

The sea of tiffany chairs and blue clad chairs was a nice sight to behold.

All in all, it was an awesome day and we still had time to go to our church and submit some requirements as well as visit a friend and give our save the date card for him. We even ate in a Korean resto too! Here are some other pictures to show how the day went. ta-tuh! till next time!

Saturday, November 26, 2011

In the past couple of months, I've had 3 part time jobs and a fulltime job so I barely had time to sleep and get a pedicure(seriously!). Inasmuch as I enjoyed blogging, it had to take a backseat for me to get things done. However, we had our prenup just last week and I couldnt contain myself any longer..It took a lot of planning for this prenup to materialize. We had to ask our mountaineering friend Sir Wynn to take our pictures since he was very talented and we knew he'd say yes to any opportunity for a shoot or a climb and this was an opportunity hitting both birds :D

our mountaineering friend, sir wynn who made this shoot possible :)I also had to use my googling powers to look for shots that we liked, which we copied in turn on the day of the shoot.God Blessed us on that weekend and let everything fall into place. The weather was fine and we were surrounded by friends and family who were more than willing to make every shot perfect. I have all the shots from Sir Wynn but to prevent the risk of overexposing the pictures prior to the time that they will serve their purpose on our std cards, thank you cards, souvenirs and everything else, here are a few pictures to give you an idea....

Mt Gulugod Baboy which is overlooking Anilao and other towns of Batangas

There were even some mountaineers who found us "cute" and took our pictures. They called Arnold "Attorney" but he jokingly replied that he was selling insurance :PSilhouette shots are love and here are two of them

Our 2nd outfit....

The couple and the shitake mushrooms(they looked like button mushrooms but shitake just sounds so much cuter :)

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

I'm sorry I had to use that but there is not better title for this blog..The bibling of our wedding!
I know it shouldn't be about the material stuff but it doesnt hurt to get a few nice extras on top of a loving husband. So far, I noticed that I've developed a habit of blogging about wedding thingies that are related- first the unique ideas, now the blings and in the near future, the diy projects. First on the list of course:

The ring

Meio and I have been talking about our wedding as early as june last year so the engagement ring was just a formality. All the same, it still makes me feel kilig since he gave it in our of our climbs- on April 9th, on the 9th highest mountain in the philippines, mt. timbak:

The irony that something that signifies a beginning is set against something so old and literally rustic :)

us during that climb ^_^

The wedding rings

we went to meycauayan last march and got our rings on the spot..simply pretty for a fraction of what we thought the cost would be

my head dress

Some people would say I bought it way tooo early but looking at it makes me so happy that it doesnt matter. It's made of swarovski and hubby to be's bf-gf anniversary present to me(pm me if you wanna know where I bought it.

The original one was white and brown and though our motif colors are tiffany blue and choco brown, i had it changed since blue stands out even more and I was not disappointed.

my shoes

as i will mention in another blog, i have 3 pairs of wedding shoes at the moment and this one is my fave!!! why not considering the price and how beautiful it is...there is one stone missing and you probably don't notice and wont even find it even though i told you

here are my awesome shoes!picture to follow.I dont have the file

with me pero atat nako mag-blog ^_^

arrhae
For personal reasons, i dislike the arrhae tradition but we have no choice but to include it. Imagine my delight when I saw a shop in divi selling arrhae holders for 20-35 pesos. no, i didnt omit zeroes there, they're really between 20 to 30 pesos. I can simply add 10-20 1 peso coins and instead of the typical 150-300 arrhaes, saving a hundred bucks isnt bad.

I was skeptical that I'd find the exact same design on google but here it is!

Adding all these small details and good finds, I'd hit whoever says that it aint about the bling cause it can be about the bling! Thanks for reading and happy preps to engaged couples out there!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

This is entitled pre-nup story board but honestly, I dont have a specific concept like a theme or concept in mind. Haha. How stupid. It's because I just want the pictures to show how in love we are so I focused more on making us as relaxed looking as possible. I just thought of props, the location and let other things take their natural course. It's still in November but with more than a month to go, I am excited to share details that we controlled and talked about.

1.The Location
I won't disclose it's name so as not to jinx it but given that we are mountaineers and mountains make up a big part of our lives, we decided to have the pictorial in a mountain. No worries about the oot charges since our photogs are friends who are just as talented AS pros and agreed to do it there. Yey! Here's a picture of the mountain:

h2b and i when we climbed the mountain last july.I specifically requested that we dont take as many pictures during the july climb since we can take as many pictures as we want on the big pictorial :)

2. The props
Since it is also a climb, inconvenient and bulky props are out of the question, like balloons and my pet dog Fudgie. I liked lollipops before but somehow they don't go with everything else- being tweetums mountaineers.
Hence, i settled for two props I like the most-Parasols and Bubbles

Our motif is blue and brown but I didnt want to overuse it so we'll just add little details like blue parasols

2. Bubbles

Bubbles are so common but they just add that magical touch to any picture. Toy bubble guns are available in divilandia for as low as 50 and two "alalays" este friends would suffice in helping us achieve that effect by firing the guns

That's just about it except for a last "patikim".. Niceprint photo shared Kyla and Rich's prenup shots and we would definitely love to "copy" and redo this particular shot

Friday, September 30, 2011

It's 3am and I'm supposed to be sleeping but I cant so I shant.haha..Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory makes my day any day. Anyhow, I looked at my profile pictures on facebook and realized my great love affair with travelling- 2010 and 2011 have been awesome years by far. From all the places I've been to, I realized that I have learned valuable insight on traveling, but mostly it's just common sense I'd like to put into writing.

1. DREAM BIG.
I've always wanted to go Singapore but I never thought I'd be able to with 600 pesos. Not literally, but our tickets only cost 600 pesos and that's roundtrip. yep, roundtrip. Dream of that one place that you've always wanted to go to and do your best to achieve that dream vacation.

2.GOOGLE, GOOGLE, GOOGLE AND GOOGLE SOME MORE
Search Engines and the Internet are two of the best things that happened to backpacking. Maximize the power of the internet and look for as much information as you can. For example, only after googling have I learned that the places that we will visit in Cebu are literally spread across the province and it was also through browsing that I learned that most paid attractions in Singapore go over 30 sgd...but some things still come for free... :)

3. BE REALISTIC.
no, I'm not being paradoxical. I just mean that flights will be late, traffic will always be there, the bus will not always come on time and things will be more expensive than u expected. Always be on your toes while travelling and never let the small things ruin your trip. Always have a back up plan so that if things dont go as planned, you wont be so bummed out. Likewise, be flexible at all times and cross out some things in your checklist if it means you'll be safer and/or enjoy more.

4. Take as many photos as you can!
The Pasalubong will be eaten and given away, your memory will betray you sometimes, souvenir shirts will fade and be damaged in time but photos are your best reminders of a wonderful vacation...Photos can also betray you- Beautiful pictures dont always equate with beautiful places in the same way that some pictures dont do justice to the place because the places are way better in person...

I wanted to post pictures but laziness got the better part of me..so bye-bye peeps.. Until the next musing or wedding preps related post!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

I went to trinoma yesterday planning to buy my cord sponsor's dress. However, it was no longer available and lo and behold, I ended up buying thingies for our diy wedding cord, the inspiration of which and the whole concept only came yesterday. After less than 24 hours, I am proud to say that it's done.Below is a quick guide on how I made it in case future brides are planning to do the same. However, I believe that it is not so cheap considering other options so this was purely a matter of wanting to do our cord by myself and having it personalized. I originally wanted a rosary cord but that's a whole new story altogether so here goes:The materials that I used are:5 meters of rope kinda thingie for the body(you might want to add more if you want it thicker)=12 pesos/meter x 5=604 meters of 1cm brown ribbon for the extension 5/meter x4=204 meters of 1/2 cm ribbon for the body= 3/meter x4=12the god knows what cloth used for petticoats =existing supply at home1/2 of 2 sequin packs from divi= 7x2=14/2=71/2 of 2 bead packs from divi=5x2=10/2=5lots of thread of your color of choiceglue gun and glue sticksSteps:1. I approximated how long each loop would be then the excess part served as the extension which I would later decorate. I wanted the cord to be thicker so I twisted one side of both loops(back side) and the front side remained as is. On every twist, I used hot glue to keep it in place. After gluing all the twists, I tied it in the middle and by the end, the body looked like a seemingly typical wedding cord:

2. then, I covered every bit of the extension with brown ribbon which was easier said than done and the result was not so perfect. 2 alternative options would be to1. put the ribbon in a swirling direction but leave out space like what I did with the blue part2. buy brown rope thingie but the colored ones are much more stiff which I didnt like3. After that, i made heart cutouts and sew them like small pillows and filled them with cotton. After that, I put sequins and beads. I put them in the extension part and they are love!

4. Next, I covered the main part with blue ribbon but this time, I put spaces which was a very sensible thing to do because it was much faster and easier to do it well.Voila! Our wedding cord is done! I'm still thinking of adding trinkets such as our initials or endearment but that can wait and at least, our cord is passable. Sabi nga ni h2b when he saw it " Wow, pwede na yan. Kahit hindi mo na dagdagan, okay na." Yung buhok ko ang haba, pakisuklay naman :DI was so excited I even hung it up on two chairs para ala wedding na talaga. Pure labor of love talaga since it took me around 7 hours to do it with tv on the side and 100 pesos but it was well worth it coz at least, my attention got diverted to the fact that I now lack one entou gown. sigh.

The finished product

I'm planning to put trinkets sa tail soI'm not sure if I'd still make a 3rd heart...

I love how it falls and how the heart creates some kinda valley between us when worn on our big day ^_^

Hope you gained some ideas..Feel free to ask questions re making this. tah-tah!